Brief Intermission

Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not dead. Just life stuff getting in the way of blogging. I'll try to get back to normal by the end of the week. I aced my Course Assessment BTW! YES!

So to keep you all happy I'll show you the following which I watched on Telly last night. It's from a BBC sketch show called Armstrong And Miller!

Reunions and Resolve!

Great weekend! The Hubby came back from China at long last and boy were we pleased to see him. Two weeks is too long! As usual he amazed me by being able to readjust to local time within a day. I don't know how he does it. Going to Ireland puts me out of whack and that's in the same time zone - it just gets dark there an hour later! But T has been globetrotting all his working life and that's nigh on 30 years now - so he's learned a thing or two I guess.

Me, I just love having him around. It makes me all smiley inside. And the fact that I didn't have to get up at the crack of sparrows to walk the Pooch on Sunday and the back garden somehow doesn't resemble a jungle anymore, is pretty nice too.

So what's on the agenda this week? Well I have to catch up on the course I'm doing. (Now there's a surprise)! Apparently they actually didn't build in a week off after submitting assignments - you're supposed to just crack on to the next Block of work. That's a bit much don't you think??? So when I checked in on Friday I realised I have a bit of work to do to catch up. Not to worry! I do my best thinking under pressure. This particular Block looks like it's going to be very interesting and useful. It covers Plot, Narrative and Time. I need help with all of these things if I'm ever going to get The Project back on the rails again. The next block (4) looks even more useful - it concerns Narrative Point of View. I started The Project in third person POV but wasn't all that happy with it so I re-wrote it in first person but I haven't been able to find the right 'voice' and my MC is coming off as really annoying. I think that I'll switch back to third person again but I need help. I'm hoping this next Block will shed some light.

Anyhoo - this isn't getting my coursework done. I'm off to put the kettle on.

Horses

Living in the English countryside as I do, meeting horses as I drive around the lanes is a daily event. I have learned to drive at a speed that is suspicious of what's around the corner. In Ireland it could be a flock of sheep or cows going off to be milked but here, nine times out of ten, it'll be a 16-hand-high frisky mare walking at a snail's pace. Possibly two. Or three. Sussex is a very horsey county. They are very proud of their equestrian traditions and it's quite pleasing to see that they even have pony and traps on the road regularly. Yesterday I even saw a proper high-sprung racing carriage that wouldn't have been out of place in a Georgette Heyer regency novel. As I said - very horsey.

Thing is - I don't get it. I don't get the attraction. This could be because I was once on the back of a very bad tempered pony that took off down a lane and would not stop for anyone. How I didn't get thrown off is a testament to the enormous levels of skill I'd acquired on my one and only riding lesson the week before. That and somebody far bigger than the little bastard I was "riding", jumping out and grabbing the reins and pulling him to a stop, whacking him between the eyes as I jumped off in terror! So I have always been a little afraid of them. They're very strong, quite big and I'm convinced - as thick as shit. I hated coming to this conclusion as I'd spent quite a considerable portion of my early childhood thinking that Black Beauty was the cleverest animal in the world when in fact he was just a very pretty horse that was good at nodding. And don't even get me started on Mr. Ed! He lip-synced the whole thing. Apparently he couldn't speak a word of English.

The thing is - in England it's all a bit refined! I understand wanting to ride horses if they're galloping at break-neck speeds but where's the fun in a leisurely trot along a lane or working up to a canter on a bridle path? Nope - I don't get that at all. Last week while driving along the back lanes I happened upon a woman on a huge horse who was talking on a mobile phone. The woman - not the horse. Seriously you can lose your driver's license for holding a phone while sitting in the driver's seat of a car (quite right too) but you can talk to your heart's content, apparently, while riding a monster of a horse you seem to have very little control over. I had to stop the car because she couldn't hold the damn thing in a straight line. Still, she smiled very nicely at me and waved with her non-phone-onlyholdingthereins- hand. "Bloody hell," I thought as I turned the corner to find a similarly gigantic beast being ridden by a teenager who was texting! What jolly japes!

Now riding like a cowboy - that I understand! I grew up watching The High Chapparal, Bonaza, The Big Valley and my absolute favourite - The Virginian!

As scared as I am of them, if I have the chance to get on a horse an ride like the wind across a big plain toward some red sandstone monolith in the distance, I bloody will. As long as I have the outfit - complete with plaid shirt, neckerchief, faded denims, chaps and cowboy boots. And I want to go so fast that my hat blows off my head (but I won't lose it because of that leather cord loosely hanging from it around my neck). I will wear a dirty light coloured hat. That would be very cool.

I can't help feeling that I'd be more like this though. But I can dream...
I'm humming a theme - can you guess what it is?
Dah! Dah-da-dah! Dah-duh-da-da-dah! Dah! Dah-da-dah! Dah-duh-da-da-dah!
Doo-doo! Doo-doo-do-doooo!
Doo-doo! Doo-doo-do-doooo!
Doo Doo Do-dooo-doo-doo-doo-doo
Dooo doo doo doo doo doo do-dooo!
Dah! Dah-da-dah! Dah-duh-da-da-dah!

That took way to much time to dodo!

Last photo from www.wikihow.com How To Avoid Injury When Falling Off A Horse

How To Get Focussed - JaneyV Stylee.

Thanks to everyone who wished me good health after my, frankly. terribly self-indulgent post on Monday. Whatever virus had struck was murdered by a high temperature and severe sweating on Monday night and I woke up human again on Tuesday. Don't you just love the immune system? Of course it's also my immune system that's causing all the allergy symptoms but hey - I'd still rather have it than not and I'm very aware that one month of sneezy-misery is very little to put up with in the grand scheme of things so I'm shutting up now (although I'm reserving the right to moan occasionally when I feel like a bag of shite!)

I spent Tuesday reading a book instead of writing my assignments. This is me all over. Call it what you will - procrastination, displacement activities, laziness .... but if there's a job that needs doing and a deadline looming I have to push that envelope to ripping point before I can get my head in the game. I had three pieces to write. The deadline was today. It was recommended that we submitted on Thursday because we have to do it online and they wanted any incompatibility issues to be flagged before the deadline. Sensible enough. I had a schedule planned out.

Monday. Finish reading the Block 2 and do activities designed to focus mind for writing Assessment pieces.
Tuesday. Write part 1
Wednesday. Write part 2
Thursday. Write part 3. Check over all three parts. Submit.

I think as schedules go that worked well. Everything's covered, I have paced myself well and left lots of time for other activities like parenting, dog walking, cleaning, eating and sneezing.

What actually happened was closer to this......

Monday. Wake up at 4 am to pack daughter off to France. Start feeling a bit rough. By actual getting up time I feel like death on sticks. Blog about it (because that's what normal people do). Try sitting at computer to work but give up. Print off the entire Block 2 and take it up to bed - using pen and paper instead of electronic media. Do as much as I can whilst alternatively shivering and sweating. Drink a lot of tea.

Tuesday. Wake up feeling great. Promise myself that I will definitely get all my reading done today. The postman comes and delivers the third book in the Twilight saga, Eclipse. Try hard to ignore it. Only 3 days and I can read it. Try to finish block 2. Make cup of tea then go to my room and submerge myself in Edward, Bella and Jacob and all the goings on in the land of teenage vampire/human/werewolf relationships. (Well I did promise myself I'd get my reading done today). Blissfully ignore my course.

Wednesday. Finish Eclipse. Mourn finishing Eclipse. Have Small Son's friend and his Mum around for a visit till 4.15 pm. Totally forget to pick up Big Son from Eco Club till reminded by Hubby on Skype that he should've been home by now. Mad dash to school. (In my defence with daughter away I didn't even know what day of the week it was and he does normally get the bus home). Only 20 minutes late - he was cool. Finally sit down to finish Block 2 after dinner. Fall asleep writing.

Thursday. Write Parts 1, 2 and 3 and submit. Go to bed with headache.

Were they any good? - No idea whatsoever! I did amaze myself by how focussed I was though.

A Healthy(?) Dose of Self-Pity

Apologies if this is all over the place but my brain's a bit addled and I'm not sure if I'm capable of proper "joined-up" thinking right now. My nose is running like a leaky tap (that's what we call a faucet) at the moment. It is the time of year for my hayfever to hit me like an itchy sledgehammer but I seem to be missing the irritation factor. No streaming eyes, no impulse to gouge them out with my nails - I haven't even felt the need to scratch my face till it's raw. I'm fast coming to the conclusion I might have a cold. I didn't even get a cold this winter. WTF??? I find myself hoping for that tingling feeling around my mouth and nose because then I could just take an antihistamine and get some relief. Instead I'm just sneezing and sniffing. Poor me!

On top of that my Hubby is in China for two weeks working on an international event that's taking place there this summer about which I know absolutely NOTHING - because that's what confidentiality agreements mean. Don't tell your wife anything about what we're doing because she'll put it in her blog and spoil the surprise. Keeping secrets is not something I enjoy. Mostly because when I hear them I'm at a loss to understand why they are, in fact, secrets at all. And the big doozy ones that have to be kept secret because they're - like, awful - bring about a soul-sickness in me so, unless I can actually help the situation, I'd rather not know those at all. So T went off to Beijing to do something very secret, technical and eventy. And that's all I know.

I miss him.

Then this morning at 4.55am I hugged my daughter as she left on a school trip to France. Aside from the odd sleepover this is the first time she's stayed away from home. She's not even 11 yet. I admit it - I cried. Then I went back to bed, slept trough my alarm which meant Child #1 (who could sleep through a bombing campaign) wasn't woken till 7.40 and he gets his bus at 8. He made it though! At least he didn't come home looking for a lift so I assume he did!! I was all sweaty when I woke up which further lends evidence to the cold theory. Either that or I was just too hot!

But with Big Son gone I had no one to watch Small Son so he had to walk to dog with me. He kept chasing the balls I threw for the doggie!

"No!No! Small Son! The object is to wear the doggie out - not you!"

By the time I got him to Preschool, I realised that his shoes and socks were soaked through. Fortunately, under the advice of the new Leader I had brought in some slippers for him. Unfortunately, this is when I realised that his feet had grown a LOT since he last wore them. I still forced them on him though. They're soft! And I'm sure that the little flashing lights on Thomas The Tank Engine will distract from the discomfort. Possibly.

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I took a break there - I bet you didn't even notice - to take the doggie out for her big walk and to collect Small Son from Preschool. I brought him some dry socks to put on. His poor feet were so horribly sweaty when I took his slippers off he turned to me and said,

"Oh fankoo Mama! These socks feel lovely!" Poor. Poor. Baby!

The walk was good although I do feel like going to bed now. After all the rain last night, the evaporation that was taking place did make it feel a bit like walking the Pooch in a sauna. It also caused a bit of itching in the facial region and a slight increase in the sneezing. I have come to an ugly conclusion.

I have a cold .... and hayfever.

Shit.



Because it's sneezing, Chinese, short and funny!

NOT Eurovision!

In order to cure you of the pain I inflicted with my Eurovision post have a look at this. I just thought he was brilliant.

Watch for how little Segen Max recovers after he drops his drumstick at 2.10(ish). This video was apparently taken at the little fella's 2nd birthday. Dad's on the big bass drum but the kiddie does all the rest!



A little relief from the Eurotrash!

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Very Important Notice

Ello is hosting a very important Author Event on her blog. Her guest is Dr Gigi Durham author of The Lolita Effect, The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What we can Do About It, (published by Overlook Press). You can leave a question in the comments section or just follow the thread. It should be fascinating.

A Brief Lesson in Eurovision

Ok Saturday was the kitsch highlight of the year with the airing of the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest. A competition to find the best song in Europe (and apparently Israel - no idea why). Each country hosts a competition to find the best original song, for a given year, to represent them in this annual Fiesta. Unfortunately it kind of had its heyday in the 70's when its most famous winner, Abba, won with Waterloo. In '88 Celine Dion even won it with an entry in French for Switzerland. In those days each country had a jury of 12 music officianados who actually listened to each entry and voted on the merits of the music. Since then, due to escalating costs, it has been thrown open to the public to televote for the most popular, rather than the best, entry. The fall of the Wall and the admission of eastern block countries has taken a lot from the earnestness of the competition (it was there once - I remember) as all the eastern block countries vote for each other now and the best song very rarely gets a look in. Certainly the countries of western Europe haven't a hope. That said the top 5 were all reasonable songs but there were a LOT of very silly songs too!

However, as extremely silly as it's all become, it's still worth a watch as 25 counties try to outdo each other in spectacle. It's long since been worked out by quite a few Eastern block countries that to catch the votes - you gotta get a gimmick!

This is the Latvian entry for this year. I chose this one as an example because I actually laughed out loud in the middle of it. Watch out in the second (possibly?) verse when chief Pirate waves his cutlas with menace!

This is Pirates of The Sea - Wolves of the Sea the 2008 Latvian entry to Eurovision (not Panto in case you were wondering) - Seriously! This came 12th!



As the Last "Tenku Yoroop!" was heard my hubby T, leaned over to me and said,

"D'you know - I'm not entirely sure those were real Pirates!"

Anyway this was the UK entry - it came last. Judge for yourselves which is the better song!
This is Andy Abraham - Even If.



Apologies for the quality - blame YouTube!